Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Live Review - Mercury Rev @ The Zoo - 11/12/2015

In week which saw the likes of DIY
forefathers, Shellac, the buzz artist of 2015 that is Father John Misty, and
the idiosyncratic Julia Holter all descend upon Brisbane, it was the irrepressible
Mercury Rev that emphatically stole the show. A sonic bout of grandiosity filled
the confines of Brisbane’s musical institution better known as The Zoo.

Mercury
Rev’s legend is well documented. I don't intend
to elaborate on why Deserter’s Songs or All is Dream are landmarks of the indie
music scene over the past twenty years. There have been many who have
eloquently documented these truths of the past. This space is about this live performance and just
how moving it was.

Jonathan Donahue enters in clad
more appropriate for colder climes, however this doesn’t deter Mercury Rev’s proverbial
heartbeat. As summarised quite succinctly by my wife, Donahue could be a
character out of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
He is the band’s orchestrator, dragging his audience into his world for ninety minutes.
A world brimming with fantasy and nature; the themes which have made Mercury
Rev stand on their own for two decades as true originals.

‘The Queen of Swans’, the opening track from the
dazzling new album, The Light In You,holds a raw grandeur live. The chorus trades neo-psychadelia for a barrage of shoegaze by the band’s engine room, Sean ”Grashopper”
Mackowiak. Straight away you can feel you are within the realm
of something special. The stripped back ‘Are You Ready’ is bassist Anthony
Molina’s time to shine - a rocking number upon the framework of his nagging bass
lines. The song itself is one of the great feats during The Light In You. ‘Central Park East’ and ‘Autumn’s in the Air’ are
both equally as stunning.

Then there’s the old guard. ‘You’re
My Queen’ is a more upbeat version to the one on record. Naturally it astounds,
and anyone who has held an ear to the live cut will agree. ‘Diamonds’ is
presented at a snail’s pace, as Donahue almost narrates the words to his
audience who, by now, are truly mesmerised. ‘Opus 40’ is another track that has endured a reworking, now a audible
behemoth which rubs shoulders with My Bloody Valentine’s holocaust section of ‘You
Made Me Realise’. An incredible sequence of lights, feedback and first-class virtuoso.

The encore includes the venerable
‘Goddess on a Hiway’, while the staple closer that is ‘The Dark is Rising’ caps
off an evening that constitutes 2015’s finest live performance.

On one hand, to witness something
as special as this with so few people is simply captivating. On the other [hand],
it’s extremely disappointing, considering something so majestic fails to garner
the wider audience it so justly deserves. Sadly, that’s the Brisbane music scene
in 2015, which continues to demonstrate an alarming precariousness. Sure, as we
get older the soul destroying banality of the everyday does its best to thwart
our enthusiasm, making it more difficult to be blown away by certain things. It's still possible, though. Things can be more than just good. They can be incredible. Mercury Rev’s live performance more than proved that.